The gospel on celebrity and pop culture

Johnny Depp on Angelina Jolie and his 'gay' Jack Sparrow

Johnny Depp is racking up promotional miles in his push for "The Tourist," discussing costar Angelina Jolie and reflecting on the beginnings of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

As broody coverboy for the latest issue of Vanity Fair, rock lady Patti Smith got a healthy chunk of Depp's coveted time and two cents.

About Jolie, Depp told Smith, "Meeting her and getting to know her was a real pleasant surprise. You don't know what she might be like -- if she has any sense of humor at all. I was so pleased to find that she is incredibly normal, and has a wonderfully kind of dark, perverse sense of humor."

That sense of humor comes in handy when dealing with the attention she, Brad Pitt and their family receive.

"There are times when you see how ridiculous is this life, how ludicrous it is, you know, leaving your house every morning and being followed by paparazzi," Depp said.

The actor also admitted to limited contact with Jolie to avoid any speculation about an off-camera relationship, including "sometimes not even being able to talk to each other in public because someone will take a photograph and it will be misconstrued and turned into some other [stuff]."

One instance in which Depp was miscontrued was in his first interpretations of Capt. Jack Sparrow, the haphazard lead of the Disney's cash-cow "Pirates" franchise.

"I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, 'He's ruining the movie,'" Depp said.

"Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, 'What’s wrong with him? ... Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?' And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite ... 'But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?'